? Eric Olesh (@eolesh) April 25, 2014On the disabled list. After leaving his final spring training start on March 27 with pain in his triceps, Mets doctors later diagnosed him with a strained lat. This is now the third year in a row that the 2011 second round pick has missed time with an injury. Mazzoni had?elbow neuritis?last April and arthroscopic surgery on his knee in August 2013. He also missed a start in late July 2012 with a?finger issue.?

Terry Collins on Cory Mazzoni (Triceps)

Terry Collins on Cory Mazzoni on SNY, who left Thursday's game early, in the second inning pointing to his triceps near his shoulder:

He complained of a strain on his tricep on the last pitch he threw. He's a young, talented guy. We're very, very concerned about it because he's ... one of those guys we were counting on seeing this summer. You hope his arm bounces back ok.

Mazzoni had elbow neuritis last April and athroscopic surgery on his knee in August. He also missed a start in late July 2012 with a finger issue.?

Top 41: #18 - RHP Jeff Walters and #19 - RHP Cory Mazzoni

We're fully into the "middle relievers who could be up in 2014" section of this list. It's not sexy, but these guys are potentially useful big league pitchers as soon as a few months from now. That proximity to providing big league value puts them ahead of higher upside players who might never see a day in the big leagues.

Thursday in AA: Cory Mazzoni Hurt

Cory Mazzoni left game one after 1.2 innings with a right knee injury. Per Lynn Worthy in the Press & Sun Bulletin:

Mazzoni left the first game after telling Lopez he heard a pop in his knee with one out in the fourth after throwing 11?3?innings. Lopez and trainer Matt Hunter visited the mound, and Mazzoni threw one warm-up pitch before leaving.

AA Thursday: Cory Mazzoni Solid in Messy B-Mets' Win

Why messy? The B-Mets scored the go-ahead run on a bases-loaded walk. The Squirrels balked home another run. Binghamton allowed two unearned runs.

Cory Mazzoni: 6 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K. After beginning his professional tenure as an extreme low-strikeout rate guy, Mazzoni is missing bats all of a sudden. In his last four starts, over 24.2 innings, he's fanned 34 and walked six while yielding 15 runs, nine earned on 22 hits. That's a 3.28 ERA, a 33% strikeout rate and a 5.8% walk rate. That's all good stuff. In his first five starts sandwiched around a DL trip, he had a 4.68 ERA and a 18% strikeout rate.

AA Afternoon: Cesar Puello is a Bad Mother

Cesar Puello hit two more homeruns, a game-tying shot in the sixth inning and a go-ahead blast in the eighth. The 22-year old is now up to .320/.397/.602 in 49 games with 11 doubles, two triples and 12 homers, a new career-high. Up to the second, he's 7th in the EL in batting average, tied for second in HR, third in stolen bases (15), tops in HBP (10), slugging percentage and HR/AB ratio (1 every 15.08 AB). He's homered in four straight games while going 10-for-17 (.588) in that span.

AA Sunday: B-Mets Split and Cory Mazzoni is Missing Bats?

Little good or interesting happened in game one for the Mets. For the Senators, the Nationals affiliate, 3B Anthony Rendon was 2-for-2 with a homer. Rendon, who will turn 23 in June, is hitting .354/.500/.633 in 23 games in AA. That's what a top hitting prospect is supposed to do in AA.

The B-Mets got off to a quick start in game two, scoring nine runs in their first two turns at bat. The strange thing - the BMets had just two extrabase hits, both doubles, but seven of the nine starters had hits.?Even pitcher Cory Mazzoni (pictured)?was 2-for-3 with two RBI. More importantly, he was effective on the hill in his second start since returning from the disabled list with elbow neuritis: 5.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K. After fanning just 16% of batters in AA last year, in 13.2 IP over three starts this year Mazzoni has fanned 14, a rate of 24.6%. It's early yet for Mazzoni, but that's much more like it.

Nothing matches that Spurs-Warriors game. I was looking forward to a nice early night with some box scores, a writing project or two and instead I watched one of the greatest basketball games I've ever seen. That was just awesome.

Injury Updates: Cory Mazzoni, Luis Mateo and Michael Fulmer

- Michael Fulmer (torn meniscus): threw one inning and 12 pitches Wednesday in an extended spring training game without any issue. He will proceed on a standard starter's schedule to stretch out his arm to prepare for game action.

- Luis Mateo (elbow): He's resting/rehabbing in Port St Lucie. He left his start on April 15th. The idea is that he will begin throwing in the next week-10 days depending on how his elbow progresses. One scout who saw Mateo in the Florida State League really liked him; he saw him as an above average big league starter - like a #2 level guy.

Friday Q&A: Help in 2013

The closest guy is Juan Centeno who has hit his way out of life as a minor league backup into minor league starter in the last few years. This year, the 22-year old, who is generously listed at 5'9", hit .285/.337/.342 in 79 games for AA Binghamton. While he makes contact (just 43 strikeouts in 79 games) there's little power here to make him more valuable than, say, Thole.

Upper Minors Thursday: Wilmer Flores Goes Big Fly

The Bisons had a 3-1 lead in the seventh, but the bullpen could not hold a lead. Sound familiar?

RHP Armando Rodriguez made the spot start for the Bisons after working the vast majority of the year out of the Binghamton bullpen. His line: 4.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K. Rodriguez has been on and off the Mets' 40-man roster in the last year and went unclaimed when he was exposed to waivers.

Hey, Look, Reese Havens is Back for AA

Saturday, Reese Havens, who had missed eight days with a stiff back, returned to the lineup, playing second and hitting second. Havens was 0-for-3 with a walk and three strikeouts. The 25-year old is hitting .232/.365/.370 with 100 strikeouts against 57 walks in 85 games in his third go-round in the Eastern League. He needs to play in 12 of the B-Mets last 16 games, to match his career-high of 97 games set back in 2009 in a season. His season started late while he recovered from injury, and he's missed time during the season with back-stiffness. For the year, he's struck out at a 27% clip. Even while hitting for a little better average (.265/.385/.426) since June 1 he's fanned in 29% of his plate appearances.

Havens, one of three Mets' first round picks in 2008, might still play in the big leagues. However, the chances of him becoming an impact guy, that is league average or better over any significant stretch of time, has dropped to nearly nil.

The Weekend in Binghamton: Find the Flores? He's at 2B

This was not a fun weekend for our "Find the Flores" game. Wilmer Flores has played second base in each of the last three games while Reese Havens has remained on the bench. Flores (pictured, swinging) did have a good weekend with the stick, picking up three hits both Saturday and Sunday. With knocks in four straight games, he's back up to .292/.337/.433 in 47 games at double-A just past his 21st birthday.

Upper Levels Saturday: Cory Mazzoni Drops a Gem on Altoona

All he does is hit homeruns and strikeout. Well that and play a mean centerfield. CF Matt den Dekker: 1-for-4, HR, 3 RBI, 3 K. When you combine his strikeout rate (28.8%) and his HR rate (4.5%) in AAA, it runs to 33.3% of his plate appearances. He's hitting .192/.218/.423 with a .217 BABIP and 32 strikeouts in 24 games.

In case you were concerned, Justin Hampson cleared waivers and is savely back with the Bisons. (Note: savely was originally a typo, but I left it in because Hampson earned a save with a scoreless inning of work Saturday. We'll call Freudian-typo.)

Ruben Tejada was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts while playing all nine innings defensively for the Bisons. This was Tejada's first rehab game since June 5, when he shut himself down with tightness.

Ronny Cedeno was 1-for-4 while playing all innings defensively. In his six rehab games with the Bisons, Cedeno is hitting .200 (5-for-25). This was his first start at second to make way for Tejada after five at shortstop.

Story Lines for Advanced-A St. Lucie

We're two weeks into 2012, so keeping in mind that it's still really early, we'll take a look at some of the big picture things going on at each affiliate.

St. Lucie is third in the Florida State League in scoring averaging exactly four runs per game on a batting line of .242/.329/.369 in 12 games. The team FSL Mets are third in in walks and tops in stolen bases (17) and stolen base percentage 89% (17 of 19).

The team's pitching leads the FSL in ERA (1.74) and is tied for the fewest walks allowed 27 and 2.24 BB/9.

3B Wilmer Flores picked up a couple of singles, a walk and two stolen bases(?!?). For a little bit of context, he stole just two bases in the entire 2011 season over 133 games. All eight of his hits so far in 2012 have been singles.

Robbie Shields and Cory Mazzoni Lead St. Lucie To a Win Wednesday

Cool recovery story: Sean Ratliff. After taking a foul ball off his face that fractured bone, required multiple surgeries, caused him to miss the 2011 season and threatened his career, Ratliff, played for the first time in 2012. He's 25 now, so while it's very unlikely he'll ever make a difference in the big leagues, it's just a nice story of?perseverance?that he's back on the field.

DH Robbie Shields: 3-for-4 with two doubles. The Mets third round pick in 2009, Shields is now 24, and had a really a good first week in the FSL in 2012 by going 6-for-13 with three doubles and a triple, two walks and no strikeouts. He missed the second half of 2011 in St. Lucie with back problems and when he did play, he hit .269/.338/.388 in 20 games in the FSL.

Notes from Minor League Camp Thursday

I hung out at the STEP Camp for the Mets top prospects on Thursday afternoon. Mostly, the guys worked on various defensive drills and then the batters took BP. I took a bunch of video of swings and some infielders fielding grounders that we'll post over the next week or so.

By snyminors | Aug 1, 2011 | 9:55AM

The Cyclones had a rough weekend series losing two out of three to the Lake Monsters.

Cory Mazzoni, the Mets 2nd round pick, did make his first professional start on Sunday. Mazzoni (pictured), who is working just one inning stints due to an innings limit this season, struck out the side and also hit a batter in his lone inning of work.